Early Returns Exceed Expectations for Connecticut's CTfastrak BRT System

Scott Whipple reports on the early returns for the CTfastrak bus rapid transit system, which has opened to growing ridership numbers that have exceeded expectations: "More than 150,000 rides have been taken on the CTfastrak Bus Rapid Transit system in the five weeks since operations began on March 2," writes Whipple.

Connecticut DOT officials quoted in the article note that daily ridership on the CTfastrak system currently exceeds 7,000 rides a day. Planners had targeted 11,200 daily rides for both the CTfastrak system and the CTTransit bus routes along the new corridor. Already, combined ridership is over 14,000.

Whipple also sums up the CTfastrak system, for the uninitiated:

"The transit system provides direct service to and from Waterbury, Cheshire, Southington, Bristol, Plainville, New Britain, Newington, West Hartford, Hartford, East Hartford and Manchester. It offers a one-seat, no-transfer ride to many major regional employment, shopping and health care destinationsm as well as connections to the New Haven Line-Waterbury branch rail in Waterbury and Amtrak service in Hartford. A new 4.5 mile multi-use trail now parallels the bus-only roadway from New Britain to Newington Junction."

A system map is also available online.

In a separate article, Don Stacom reports on the popularity of the late-night BRT service serving the university town of New Britain, Connecticut as part of the newly launched CTfastrak system.

"Since CTfastrak started running at the end of March, Central Connecticut State University students have embraced it as a safe, low-cost ride home on Thursday nights. For $1.50, they ride from East Street — near dorms and many off-campus apartments — to the cluster of clubs just a block or two from Union Station [in Hartford]."

Stacom describes the scene on the bus when the late-night service is in effect as well as making the case for the kind of revelry that is permitted on the bus.